Archive for the ‘Quotes’ Category

I spent most of my weekend outside. It was hot. Most of the activity I partook (that IS a word, yes?) in was sitting around drinking. On a deck, in a lounge chair, by the pool, drying off by the fire after I was thrown INTO said pool. Then doing it again the next day. Drank too much, ate a lot, sat around.

It occurred to me that this was actually a very boring weekend. In a good way. and I feel SOOO tired today! sluggard.

No one bugged me about my blog and I spared everyone IRL all the stuff I enjoy about ‘blugging’. Dreck & dross, perhaps or not, but sure is fun. Sometimes, it feels like I lead a double life. Or triple life. Triple life doesn’t sound right though… Sure is curious.

I’ve got an issue that is extremely minor and petty and yet I can’t let it go. It bugs me. The more I try to tell myself how petty and stupid and silly it is to fret over, the more I can’t stop wondering WHY I must beat myself up over it. Then, I had the brilliant idea that I should blog about it and this act would release it and I will be able to forget all about it. Gawd, I hope so.

Of course, the paranoia in me thinks the ‘culprit’ just might search the internet for this and find out! I will be exposed!? I actually started this post last night and deleted it – that’s how nuts I’ve become! I had a cute title of ‘Orange Spoon’ and has my font all set up in the orange color… But I imagined that the neighbor that I’m obsessing about will somehow read this. But, seriously? Will she? Could she? Is that really a risk?!?!

[Comment Option A: “Hey C – you are behaving irrationally”]

The setup – or is it the main issue? I took a yummy salad of cauliflower/pea salad to my next door neighbor’s potluck neighborhood party the last Saturday in June. Along with the bowl, I took my favorite orange spoon that I bought at TJ Maxx. It matches the paint color in my kitchen and is the perfect serving size with a shorter handle. (What IS it with these looooooong handled spoons? They are unwieldy to me.)

[Comment Option B: You are seriously strange that you match your utensils with your paint color.]

Of course, before the party was even over, the bowl was washed and ready for taking home and I grabbed it and left. I forgot ALL about the spoon which was no where in sight or I’m sure I would have retrieved it and none of this silliness would ever have happened…

I realized it a few days later but it was either really late at night or 6 am and I just don’t call other people during too late or too early hours. Then it was 4th of July week and we left for a 5+ day vacay for that holiday and came home in time to clean house and expect guests 1 days later for another vacation celebration… I forgot to call about my orange spoon.

Until.

For my company, I made a BYOOOOOTIFUL melon ball salad! A lot of the balls were even full balls – hard to do, really. AND I had fresh mint from my garden to sprinkle on the watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew to make it just like the fancy cookbooks recommend. I had a cool bowl to serve it in and I thought ‘Hey that orange spoon would really set this off!’

Alas, no orange spoon. So I called next door. This is what she told me:

“I waited a week and a half and no one called about that spoon so I took it to church since most of the people who came to the party were from my church and I left it there thinking it was one of them. And you’ll just have to wait until I can get to church which will be Sunday (it was Thursday, I think) and hopefully I can find it.”

all snippy. Well, I am SOOOOOOOO sorry I inconvenienced her. Poor thing – had to wait a week and half and still no one claimed that stupid spoon. I’m sure the mental stress of it was too much.

SO why is this bothering me!? I wish I could laugh it off but it pisses me off to find out she is pissed off at me!?

[Comment Option C: Get over it already. What is wrong with you?! There are space rocks hurtling through space to blow up the world (not to mention evil terrorists) and people won’t be able to heat their homes this winter due to oil shenanigans and you are thinking about this crap?]

My hub took my neighbor’s side, ‘So why didn’t you call her earlier?” Ok, cuz I don’t like to talk to her, I think. and, whenever I remembered about the damn spoon, it was either 10 pm or 5:30 am!

I can’t figure out why this lady bugs me. I think it’s because I don’t like how I feel when I talk to her. Could it be also that even think her 6 year old looks at me with contempt? She isn’t one of those people that makes you feel GOOD when you talk to her, that’s for darned sure. I could recite all sorts of injustices and wrongness about her but what’s the point of that. No one likes her and I feel bad talking about her. (yea right)

But I miss my spoon. I’m scared to ask her if she found it assuming she didn’t since Sunday was 3 days ago.

[Comment Option D: SHHEEESSSSSH! You’re weird. But here’s hoping that you can release this and get on with your so-called life.]

I would link to this site but it kind of freaks me out (uh oh. more issues) so if you want a zen like trance for a minute or two, open a new window and type these words with no spaces with the dot com after:

orangespoon

See?!?! cool, huh?

OH – and PLEASE do not comment in Russian. I can’t read the Russian Language. I will NOT be following your link back to your blog. Again, because I don’t speak Russian. I think it’s in Russian, all the comment spam I’ve gotten in the last 24 hours. I’m now moderating comments unless you’ve already commented prior… thank you.

Tagged for some memes! so fun… However, my PC is fighting me today. Here goes:

FIRSTThe Google Image Meme. I was tagged by Wearing Stilettos and Living on a Farm, click here to see her awesome collection of …. shoes! NO, that’s a few days back – but still fun. Click here for the meme.

I only made it to this shot. Which is what popped up when I entered the number of how old young I will be on my next birthday. It’s likely a random sequential number assigned to the title of the pic and not anything really to do with how many years I have traveled around the sun. “A Woman Who Will Tell Her Age Will Tell Anything.” I’ve never quite understood that quote. So what?

SECOND
The Love of Your Life Meme. aka THE HOT SEAT. I wasn’t specifically tagged, but JavaQueen played and invited anyone and all. HOWEVER. If I’m still fighting the slowness and uncooperative nature of this electronic beast, I won’t be adding all those links. Sorry for the loss of link love. I will try to visit them all tho, just to be nice?

Are you deeply in love with your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend? If you are, let’s try how well you remember the moments of your life with him. But before you put yourself in the hot seat please read the rules of this tag first.

1. This tag should be passed on to your friends.
2. Visit the blog of the person you’ve got this tag.
3. Leave a comment on her/his tag post. Be sure to thank her/him for this tag.
4. Highlight and link all the list of people who accepted this tag by visiting their blog site.
5. There are 10 questions that you need to answer but you will be the one to write the 10th question for the next person you want to pass this tag. Here are the questions. Be honest with your answers.

Let’s Start:

1. How did you meet your husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend?
I met my Hub in a class in college. We had the same major.

2. Where did you go on your first date?
Our first date was a dinner at his house. He had two friends, one being his roommate, who were treating the girlfriends to a lovely spaghetti dinner. Since my Hub didn’t exactly have a girlfriend, he asked me. In fact, I can remember clearly that he asked me with these words, “My roommate is having a dinner party and they are making me bring a date. What are you doing Friday night?”

3. When was your first intimate kiss?
Define ‘intimate’. Our very first kiss was later that night? I drank a lot of red wine. A lot. Did I mention that I had a lot of wine that night? But to answer the question with my thinking that this guy might be special, it was 2 days later.

4. How many girlfriends/boyfriends he/she had in the past? Do you honestly know?
I honestly don’t know. or care. He was my first “true” boyfriend.

5. What is his/her ethnicity?
Both of us are of German heritage.

6. What is his/her favorite food?
I’m at a loss. We love food. Love all of it. Nothing comes top of mind as a ‘favorite.’ If I start listing, it could get long.

7. What is he/she like if he/she is mad?
I can give the very same answer JavaQueen gave! “He gets an “irritated look” about him. He doesn’t say much, and when I ask what’s the matter, he starts to bitch about it. He is RARELY moody, so I allow him his moments…”

8. What are the things he/she did you thought is the most romantic thing he’d/she’d ever done?
My man is amazingly sensitive and charming. We hadn’t been dating very long (3 weeks maybe?) when he sent me a poem/present through some crazy college Greek fundraiser where they would deliver a gift for Halloween. His poem said, “Pumpkins are orange, cats are black. At Halloween, strange things are known to attract.” I as smitten, let me tell you!

9. Describe how he/you proposed to you.
I’d rather not. Let me just say that I’ve never told my mother. Of course, if I can’t tell it on an anonymous blog, who can I tell? and that’s what is so weird about the silly “blug” (as the Hub calls it.) I feel like you guys KNOW me and I don’t want to appear strange! Ok, we had just had a very lovely intimate moment (we were naked) when he exclaimed without really thinking about it, “will you marry me?!?!?!” and I giggled in joy, “oh yes!!!!” It was 8 weeks to the day after that spaghetti dinner. We married one year later and we’ve been hitched almost 20 years. (It’s amazing how easy it is to deflect that question at innocent social gatherings…)

10. What has been the biggest surprise about your signifigant other since you’ve been together?

We now live in our 7th house and this is the first one he’s given a rat’s ass about how the lawn looks. WTF? What. ever. But to be serious and mushy, he promised me over 20 years ago: NEVER A DULL MOMENT, and it’s been an awesome loving ride. It’s our theme slogan. Oh, and that scene with Demi Moore where she is a blonde – can’t remember the name of the movie… where she talks about love and falling stars and how your lover/spouse is… “YOUR SPLIT-APART BACK TOGETHER AGAIN.” That describes us, too.

This one is difficult. I’ve done it once already but it was awhile ago so I’m going to give my brain a chance to construct a new one, more relevant to this mid-2008 time in my life… Here we go – by the way, I consider myself extremely well-skilled at brainstorming.

Loving Life But Scared to Live

Why Must I Always Add ‘But…” ?

Life is Grand, My Miniscule World

Caring and Committed, Courageous and Consistent (the first line to an affirmation I wrote 10 years ago!)

Yea, But… I Always Have Excuses

Easy Choice Generation, Difficult to Choose

Can’t Make It, Sure Can Spend!

Hanging Around, Enjoying Life, Waiting, Watching.

Lots To-Do, No Motivation to Start. (I cheated and made “to do” one word?!)

All I do: Blog, Read, Laundry (not really, I could keep adding a ton more words. Hey, maybe I do more than I think. figures…)

Great Ideas! So Why Not Jump?

Ah, I see a negative attitude pattern. Looks to me like I need to challenge myself to think a little more positively, to dare to reach out and DO something. SO. That said, this post about to be published, I’m off to start my day. I have to do a little dog maintenance, a little self-beauty maintenancy (you know, get presentable) and then visit the Rehab Hospital. I also have to pick up dog food, take Oscar for a few hours of playing with his friends, and buy vitamins. I also have my English-Improvement Tutoring late this afternoon which I’m enjoying quite a bit. I suppose I should develop a few more hand outs for my Elderly Computer Training Course which is first thing Thursday and work up a questionaire for the dude who wants to hire me. (ugh) I also want to investigate Firefox more and actually attempt the download. and, of course, I have blogs to visit, my other blog to post on/at, those blog buds to vist, and pay bills. So let’s attempt a twist to that last Six Word Meme Result:

Great Ideas and I’m Jumping NOW.

XOXO, CuriousC

“Far away there in the sunshine are more highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up at them, see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.”

However, I’m OUT OF TOWN on another fun trip and prepping this post early, scheduling the publication. I had ideas of taking some kind of photo with time elapse – on film? and digitizing it but… nah.

So then I had an idea to find a photo of something MOVING and playing with some kind of crazy photo tool. Come to find out that you can download free software to create phantasmagorias! Which brings up another “however”: I hate to download stuff onto my PC. I’m silly paranoid like that.

Going back to Big Huge Labs where we did the Hockney effect for Self Portraits, I found the BEAD effect. I hope this qualifies. I present to you the original photo of a water fall in Costa Rica, the purplized bead look and then the thumbnail which really captures the look I hoped for. You can also go stand far away from your monitor to see the bigger one and catch the same effect, I think…

♦

I have no idea if this fits the theme! I did NOT want to go look at any of the actual picture suggestions for the free downloadable software for phantasmagoria that I’m sure would distract me and give me reason to doubt…. So, in the humble words that always offer comfort:

Here we are, another Friday. I wasn’t into this assignment as much as weeks past and having had a little spat – really, it wasn’t even that. Shall we say a conversation (one-sided. HIS) that has affected me in the negative.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion. ~Dale Carnegie

I have to remember that my “job” is being my husband’s ‘personal assistant’ (hey! WITH benefits!) and sometimes he treats me like an employee. I get ‘performance reviews’ like the one this morning where he gives me not only some tasks to do TODAY but also how he would handle certain situations. SItuations that I failed to do properly yesterday. And like any typical person who gets a cricitized, I’m taking it harder than I should. He’s absolutely right – I didn’t handle the situation well.

aha! I’m experiencing STRONG FEELINGS?! How do I capture this on film?! digitally?! As usual, my fingertips run to open a new window to access Google. “define emotion”: Yep ==> strong feelings. I open my folder of photos to see if anything jumps out at me… Ah, perhaps the shots I just took this week – certainly THAT would be appropriate? And then, I go tripping through some of the QUOTE sites hoping something will tie this all together…

One’s suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields – even to sadness. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Southern Mail, 1929, translated from French by Curtis Cate

FLOWERS! YES!! Not the most beautiful photos by any professional standards; these are me just wandering around my yard taking candid shots of what makes me feel good. FLOWERS MAKE ME FEEL GOOD!

I love lilacs. I love the dark purple lilacs best! I am so very excited that these are just about to bloom and in my front yard! We planted them last summer and though I requested this variety, you never know if that’s what you are really going to get. I’m thrilled. Just thrilled that I have lilacs and plenty of them! I can sit here at my PC and glance out the window to see them.

I present to you ‘Study of Lilacs To Emote Good Feeling’.

Sadness flowers to the next renewing joy. ~Jareb Teague

♦

and for a bonus, may I also give you unnamed orange flower (perennial) that smells really good too! This little guy cheers me almost as much as my lilacs but I can’t see him from the window…

Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf. ~Jonatan Mårtensson

CHOOSE JOY! go look at some flowers that inspire you.

♦

I should have known this would be an ‘emotional’ series! Please visit my PFer friends and read the stories! Such great emoting…

David, over at Thoughts-0-Dave, frequently blogs about a cairn that marks his cycling route. I suggested we ‘meme’ this… and seeing how it was sort of my idea, I decided I best jump right to it.

According to Wikipedia, a cairn is an artificial pile of stones and many cultures over many centuries have interesting piles of stone erected for many reasons. I didn’t have a reason for mine other than it sounded like a fun thing to do. With eleven (some admittedly flat) rocks stacked upon a base of a chopped-down pine tree, I present to you
The Curious Cairn:

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“To come to the party at all you have to have the agreement of these guys.” (quote by some guy named Paul Cairns)

Which inspires me to include this quote, as well:

I think the rock’n’roll myth of living on the edge is a pile of crap. – Robert Smith